In Your House 11: Buried Alive

Legacy Review

In Your House 11: Buried Alive

October 20, 1996 from the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, IN

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross (as heel JR unfortunately)

Heel JR's mic starts messing up immediately during the stand up intro. This would go on through all of the first two matches and it gets old real quick. This is the first IYH not to have the house stage. Instead it's a giant graveyard gate, to my memory the first instance of a one-off PPV themed stage by WWF, an idea long overdue to come back.

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin def Hunter Hearst Helmsley in 15:30- The first of many meetings. It's also a match between the King of the Ring winner and the man that was supposed to win it before someone had to be punished for the Curtain Call. This was supposed to be Austin against old rival Savio Vega to put a bow on that feud before Austin moved on to Bret Hart but Vega was injured. Instead, we get this heel vs heel clash. That's only going to make the crowd's warming up to Stone Cold that much more obvious. Glass shatter! Austin's classic entrance music is here! One step closer. It's so weird hearing that shatter sound without the ginormous Austin pop. Unusual slow start from Austin. HHH hits an armdrag and gives Austin the arrogant bow. Austin, then HHH, step out to jaw with the same couple of fans at ringside. Austin hits an armdrag and tells Trips he's #1 with both hands. After a solid basics exchange HHH hits a back elbow to escalate things. More stalling as all the focus on TV is JR's mic not working right. Shoving and slapping, with Austin flooring HHH with a slap. They go speed and Austin hits an elbow and kneedrop. HHH eye pokes out of some arm work and hits some chops. Austin with a boot up in the corner and clothesline for 2. Slugfest tradeoff in the corner. HHH with a backdrop and kneedrop for 2. Back suplex. They have a fun sequence where they rapid fire trade hooking in sleepers on each other, ending with an Austin jawbreaker. HHH flop! Austin covers for 2. HHH gets hot shotted, with JR calling it the stun gun. Austin elbow off the second rope for 2. HHH hits the high knee. Fistdrop off the second rope for 2. Double clothesline! Mr. Perfect comes out to ringside. He was scheduled to make his in-ring return against Trips the next night on Raw (which didn't happen as Vince didn't want him to wrestle because of his chronic back injuries, and in fact would lead to Perfect turning back heel to become HHH's mentor just in time for him to jump to WCW because they would let him wrestle). Perfect makes a move on HHH's arm candy. HHH comes out to object and Austin hits him from behind. Austin starts jawing with Perfect and they get into it. Perfect throws a drink in Austin's face! Now HHH gets the ambush. Perfect leaves with HHH's woman. HHH hooks in the Pedigree, then sees Perfect leaving with his bird and chases him down. Austin follows. Suplex hook in, reversal, and HHH suplexes Austin on the aisle! Austin backdrops out of a Pedigree on the floor and slingshots HHH into the post. Back in, double middle finger and Stunner! That gets the pin. They had a lot, A LOT, to fight against and they still managed to pull of a damn watchable almost good match. There's clearly something here. **3/4

Recap of the whole Sunny/Smoking Gunns saga. Bart's not happy about being the third wheel and wants things back to normal while Billy wants to have some Sunny days again.

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart and "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith (c) (w/Clarence Mason) def The Smoking Gunns in 9:17- This is a rematch of Owen and Bulldog's title win at the last IYH, with the difference being the Gunns are now sans Sunny. It's also another heel vs heel match. Well, Bart was playing nice but who wants to cheer for Bart Gunn? No one, that's who. Billy and Owen start. Billy wins the early exchange and does a nice Owen-like brag about it. Owen gets a flip escape and Billy kills him with a clothesline. Owen catches him coming off the top rope and the champs hit some double teams. Bart clotheslines Bulldog from the apron. We get a shot of Sunny watching backstage and looking downright yummy in that little red dress. Yes, yes, I know, she's the biggest train wreck imaginable now, but back then every man in the world wanted her. Bart hits a powerslam but misses a crossbody off the top. Bulldog crossbody for 2. More champion double teaming as Bart is in peril. Bart hits the ropes and knocks a showboating Billy to the floor. They argue and Owen rolls Bart up for 2. Billy grabs Owen and Bart hits him from behind, now sending Owen in peril. They set up the sidewinder. Bulldog sneaks in and hides behind Bart, times it, and pulls Bart away at the last second. Owen nails Billy with a spinning heel kick and gets the pin. The Gunns leave separately as the slow burn to their breakup continues. The work was fine, but it didn't have that extra juice to get it to the next level. Crowd didn't care much either. *3/4

It's in-ring promo time with heel JR. He runs Vince down and promises that he himself personally will have Bret Hart live on Raw tomorrow night, and that Bret's bringing a shovel to bury some people. He then makes some comments about "the guy that owns this company", which at that time only clued in fans or people that remembered the steroid trial knew was Vince so it's doing a little fourth wall breaking, and storms off. After that is clips from the Free For All of still injured Ahmed Johnson attacking Faarooq and his silly hat backstage, which will prevent Faarooq from getting his scheduled IC title rematch tonight. Former champ Goldust is taking his place. Once again it's a testament to how awesome Ron Simmons was that he was able to overcome the absolutely horrendous classic WWF mid-'90s crap gear he was originally given. Perfect comes out again to take JR's #3 seat at the commentary table while Mero stumbles through an awful prematch promo.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Wildman" Marc Mero (c) (w/Sable) def Goldust (w/Marlena) in 11:38- Mero defeated Faarooq in the finals of the tournament to fill the vacant title following Ahmed Johnson's injury. He's got the white strap belt tonight. Cautious start. Goldust gets in a little fondling in the corner. Mero hits a dragon screw leg whip (just wrong to use that as an early match transitional move) and armdrags. Goldust with an eye gouge and chops in the corner. He spits in Mero's face and that sets Mero off. He lays in a little ground and pound. Sloppy flying headscissors. Goldust powders. Mero with a somersault plancha! Slingshot legdrop back in for 2. Mero goes to the second rope and Goldust slams him off with a .7 choke slam. Clothesline for 2. A knee to the gut cuts off a Mero comeback. Mero gets a big head of steam and hits a crossbody for 2. Another Goldust clothesline. He wants a mic. He threatens to stick his tongue down the throat of everyone in the crowd and hands the mic back. OK then. Kinda pointless. Mero hits a back suplex. Moonsault! Goldust kicks out. A corner whip reversal leads to a Mero Bret bump. Goldust gets up the Final Curtain DDT. Mero flips out and traps Goldust in a Gedo clutch for 2. Goldust dumps Mero to the floor. Perfect leaves commentary because he thinks the ref's done a crap job. HHH then comes out. Goldust tries to annoy Perfect so Perfect pops him, then chases HHH off. Back in Mero uses the distractions to hit a Samoan drop, then Wild Thing (a shooting star press) for the win. Mero's reign would be short lived, as he'd drop the title to HHH on Raw the next night with interference help from Perfect, HHH's first ever title. In fact, every IC title change from here until Summerslam '97 would happen on Raw. Mero knew how to get his high spots in. **1/4

WWF Championship #1 Contender's Match: Sycho Sid def Vader (w/Jim Cornette) in 8:00- This is billed as the masters of the powerbomb going against each other. Sid's still a face here. WWF Champ Shawn Michaels comes out to join commentary. Incidentally this is the first time ever the reigning WWF Champion hasn't wrestled on a PPV. He gets in the ring, wishes Sid luck, then stares off with Vader. Shawn grabs Cornette's hanky, blows his nose, and ducks a Vader clothesline. Vader hits Sid with it, who no sells it as the bell rings. Sid clothesline and legdrop for 2. Mounted punches. Vader blocks an attempted slam and pummels Sid across the ring with potato shots. Short clothesline. Avalanche. Sid goes to the floor and takes a racket shot from Cornette. He punches Vader back on the apron and Sid does a sunset flip (!) back in. Vader squashes him. More short clotheslines. Sid hits a back suplex and big boot in the corner (that they needed two attempts on to get it arranged right). Now Sid comes off the top rope (!) and Vader catches him! Slam and Vader splash for 2. Splash off the second rope. He pulls Sid up at 2! He sets up for the Vader bomb but takes his time about it and Sid gets his knees up. He slams Vader! Sid sets up the powerbomb. Cornette tries to come in and Sid cuts him off with a rope in the crotch. Kick wham Vader blocks the powerbomb and gives Sid a low blow. Now Vader tries the powerbomb. Sid blocks it, ducks a clothesline and hits a choke slam for 3! Shawn comes in. He and Sid stare down but end up shaking hands. Talk about Rusev Day miracles. Vader drug Sid to a watchable match. **1/2

Backstage, JR grabs the mic from Dok Hendrix to get some words with Sid, and what magical, majestic words from Sid they are. "I'm going to go to my destiny and make my conquer!" Pure poetry. A good recap of the lengthy Mankind/Undertaker feud follows.

 

Buried Alive Match: The Undertaker def Mankind (w/Paul Bearer) in 18:25- The rules are the match starts in the ring, but the only way to win is to put your opponent in the grave set up by the stage and bury him in dirt. It's also called the first unsanctioned match in WWF history but that isn't taken advantage of as much as it should have. After the constant revolving door all night at the announce desk Vince and Lawler handle this one by themselves. Immediate slugfest at the bell. Back and forth pummeling. Mankind takes a hard guardrail shot. Taker dives off the top rope to the floor! They work up the aisle to the grave. Taker grabs a shovel, but lets go for a second and Mankind jabs the handle in his face. Taker rolls up a small package and they tumble down the hill, then head back toward the ring. Mankind gets choked with a TV cable. Taker tosses him over the rail and they go a bit into the crowd but not too far. Taker whips Mankind over the rail back to ringside, then follows up with a flying clothesline over the rail! Back in the ring Taker hooks up for old school (I think I can call it that at this point). Bearer shakes the rope and Taker gets crotched. Mankind goes on offense. Bearer hands him a spike or spike-like object and he goes to town on Taker with it. Taker pops out of the corner with a back elbow and Mankind drops the spike. Taker picks it up and uses it on Mankind. Bearer tries to pull the ropes down again and Taker goes out to stalk him. Mankind gets a chair. Taker cuts him off. Bearer hits Taker with the urn and Mankind gives him a chairshot to the head. He caresses and even licks the chair after. Like I say, it's attention to the little things that makes truly great wrestlers. Mankind hits the running knee against the stairs. They work over to the gravesite again. Taker gets thrown in the grave and Mankind grabs a shovel. Taker goozle! Mankind throws dirt in his face. He tries to hiptoss Taker back in the grave but Taker blocks it and hiptosses Mankind to the bottom of the hill! That's the big Foley bump of the match. Back to the ring. Mankind hits a piledriver and covers but there's no pins in this match. Taker comes back up with rapid fire punches. Mankind gives him the double underhook DDT onto the chair! He has a moment with the urn. Taker situp! Chairshot for Mankind. He puts the chair on Mankind's head and legdrops it! Mankind pulls the mat up off the floor. Taker blocks a piledriver and drops Mankind into the stairs! He throws the stairs in the ring and gives Mankind a couple more shots with them. Tombstone! Taker points to the grave and carries Mankind over to it. When they get to the hill Mankind hooks in the Mandible Claw! He lets go to hit Taker with the urn. Another Taker goozle counter, and he choke slams Mankind into the grave! Taker grabs a shovel, pours on dirt, and after a minute the ref's seen enough and calls it for Taker! Pretty fun gimmick match brawl, way better than the Boiler Room Brawl. It could have used some blood but Vince and co. weren't comfortable with that just yet. ***

Taker continues to bury Mankind while throwing off the refs that try to stop him. One of them, I think Jack Doan, takes a crazy bump all the way down the hill. A masked man comes out (later to be named The Executioner, who is Terry Gordy in a mask), hits Taker with a shovel and unburies Mankind. Taker gets tossed in the grave. Mandatory thunder and lightning as the dirt is piled on. Other heels come out to join in. Crush gets PPV time for the first time in forever. The Man with Three H's brings his best burying shovel. They spend a good 5 minutes or so really piling the dirt on as the nearby fans seem to be having a contest as to who can throw a drink straight into the grave. Someone wins. 1996 me is also booing the ever loving hell out of the guy in the crowd with a Jeff Gordon shirt on. Yes, I was a 100% Dale Earnhardt guy. After the grave fills up there's some more thunder and the random heels scatter. Bearer and Mankind keep shoveling, then back off to admire their work. A lightning bolt strikes the grave with pyro! Taker's hand pops up out of the grave! End scene. Well, clearly Taker's now a vampire. Get Buffy in here.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Wrestling wise pretty much everything is middle of the road. Nothing great, nothing awful. The Buried Alive match is one worth going out of your way to check out if you're going through Undertaker or Mick Foley's career highlights. The whole show also continues to have a little more Attitude slowly being injected into the product. 

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C